How can you be so dismissive of the problems your readers are reporting shortly after implementation of the VAG emissions upgrade? We know that soot increases three-fold after the upgrade. We know that soot causes long term damage to engines. We know that EGR valves and DPFs had problems before the upgrade and an increase in soot can only make things worse. We know that many vehicles presented for an upgrade will not be in tip top conditions and as a result failed early on. We know that as vehicles age they will all fail eventually, and we can surmise that all vehicles will have problems much earlier as a direct result of introducing the fix. During your trip, what verifiable evidence did the VAG engineers give you which demonstrates that customers' vehicles will not suffer problems with performance, fuel consumption, reliability and durability following implementation of the fix? Given the scale and significance of this issue, VAG should have produced loads of data and reports. What did they give you? If they don't know why it was fitted, they can't be sure that removing it won't cause problems. My bet is (that like Opel) the defeat device was introduced to prevent long term damage to engines. It follows that removing the defeat device will damage engines.